Artists and people from the community will be given canvases and paints to create their visions of what can be done to heal people and halt HIV/AIDS. The winner will receive $500 and have her or his work displayed at the Old Dillard Museum.
Audrye S. Arbe is a #1 International Best-Selling Author with RAISING RACE CONSCIOUSNESS Healing Racism Sexism and Other Isms (RRC). Audrye is a Cosmic Being, The Transformation Catalyst, Diversity Expert, Metaphysician, Life Strategist, Healer, Frequency Shifter, Award-Winning Author and Artist, Speaker, Seminar Leader.
A Blanket of Dust is a political thriller and a new addition to the Theater of Resistance. It is the story of Diana Crane, a modern day Antigone. The daughter of a US Senator whose husband has died in the World Trade Center, her subsequent ordeal in seeking justice for his murder ultimately drives her to the outer fringes of society. Struggling with facts that the government, the media, her family and her countrymen deny, she finally confronts them all with a harrowing act of sacrificial tragedy.
A great soul /funk concert. Come and be uplifted by great music and let’s raise as much money as possible to help re-unite children who have been separated from their families at the U.S. border. Tickets are $10. Please click on the link below to buy tickets, bring friends! You may make an extra donation on the night if you so wish. All proceeds will go to this great cause. Rob Duncan has played music all over the world, is a father of 3 and writes music about his experience of being human, man and father.
Here’s what he says about his music and this concert:
My music draws from my life experience; spiritually, soulfully, intellectually, and emotionally. All of my songs represent my musical influences like soul music, blues, jazz, and rock. Deeply soulful, funky, melancholy music with ultimately a message of hope. That’s how I write my music. That’s how I sing my music. I lay my heart on the table and reach you in places that you feel.
I have decided to donate the cover charge from my upcoming show at Rockwood Music Hall 3 to RAICES. RAICES primarily provides two very very important things.
It provides lawyers for the children who have been torn from their parents by ICES, and it pays the Immigration Bond which releases the parent from detention allowing their children to rejoin them. This is where your $10 cover charge for my upcoming show will go. If you wish to donate extra you may do so on the night of the show.
ROCKWOOD MUSIC HALL PRESENTS
ROB DUNCAN LIVE with his Funkin Soul Band
Date: Saturday, July 7
Time: 7 PM – 8 PM (Arrive by 6:30. Show starts at 7:00! )
Rockwood Music Hall Stage 3
185 Orchard St, New York, NY
Hosted by North Corner Music
$10 Cover Charge
For Tickets, Click Here: https://bit.ly/2LB0QPM
Socially Conscious Leadership from the Inside Out
Our guest this week has come to believe that “No matter how wonderful a program is, if it is done as a bestowing – a certain group of people making decisions for another group – that is never going to bridge the divide in our city.” Does your work fit within this paradigm of “bestowing,” and how do you plant seeds for a deeper mindset or consciousness shift to address underlying structural issues? Share Your Reflection »
Dallas-based therapist, activist, writer, community leader and speaker Michelle Kinder examines and teaches conscious leadership “from the inside out.” She offers practical, achievable steps for parents, teachers and others to support children’s social-emotional health, and for business and other leaders to drive transformation in their lives and organizations. While exploring the lack of mental health resources in southern Dallas, Kinder got to know the work of the Momentous Institute, a 99-year-old Dallas-based nonprofit organization that has been building and repairing social-emotional health through education and mental health programs. Momentous Institute serves vulnerable children through therapy services, curriculum and teacher training focused on See full.
Five Questions for Michelle
What Makes You Come Alive?
Thank you for asking. Learning makes me come alive. Learning combined with contribution has long been a winning formula for me feeling most alive. Over the years I developed the habit of checking in with myself every six months or so with the questions “Am I learning? Am I contributing?” There have been interesting seasons on how the two balance each other. There are times that striving to contribute crowded out the kind of white space by brain needs for deep learning and I have had to course correct. And there have been other times that I was learning a lot, but didn’t feel like I was being a good steward in terms of making a difference for other people or for causes I care about. I should also say that because I am currently in a season of more white space and more time for discernment, increasingly, simple pleasures are what make me come alive. Listening to birds, watching our dogs, yoga, running, sunshine, good coffee and the sound of my girls laughing together. Things like that.
Pivotal turning point in your life?
When I was in High School I left my family in Guatemala and came to the states to attend boarding school. It was a transformational experience. The wonderful faculty there saw qualities in me that they nurtured into leadership and I really learned who I was and what I was capable of during those four years. Interestingly, in my previous school, there were teachers who experienced the exact same qualities as problematic, annoying or something to control. Having that experience has made me very interested in how adults show up in the lives of children in a way that respects the enormous privilege and responsibility. I always say there are no neutral interactions when it comes to our relationships with children – all interactions are either positive, negative or missed opportunities.
An Act of Kindness You’ll Never Forget?
When I was in college, my 24-year-old sister died suddenly and it was an enormous challenge to go back to school while navigating the grief process. Several weeks into it, when people had stopped checking in, I found a card tucked into one of my books. It was from a classmate I knew somewhat, but not super well. It said something like, “I know time has passed but your hurt hasn’t.” I still tear up thinking about that act of kindness. It meant so much and it has shaped my desire to show up for others in similar ways.
One Thing On Your Bucket List?
Have the kind of flexibility to visit different places for a month at a time and work remotely while folding into the local scene.
One-line Message for the World?
Regardless of the situation, if you ever aren’t sure how to be most helpful, regulate your own nervous system.
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Awakin Circles: A hub for local meditation circles that started in the Silicon Valley and have now spread to 80+ cities around the globe. The circle start with an hour of silence, followed by a circle of sharing and dinner in silence. A newsletter with a passage selected from various wisdom traditions and an audio reading is sent out to 87,000 subscribers each week. See also Awakin Calls that hosts weekly conversations with wide-ranging thought leaders.
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ServiceSpace is an organization run entirely by volunteers. We leverage technology to encourage everyday people around the world to do small acts of service. Our aim is to ignite the fundamental generosity in ourselves and others, creating both inner and outer transformation.
ServiceSpace was conceived by volunteers, was built by volunteers, and is run by volunteers — all for the benefit of volunteers. Our projects range from a daily positive news service, to an acts-of-kindness portal, to a gift-economy restaurant. Regardless of the endeavor, we act in concert to create service opportunities for each other and to support each other’s service journeys.
In September of 2011, we formally changed our name from CharityFocus to ServiceSpace. Founded in 1999, ServiceSpace was originally started to help non-profits with technical services. Over the past dozen years, the organization has become an umbrella for many generosity-driven projects. Thus we have expanded our services from focusing just on helping charities, to encouraging everyday people to contribute in meaningful ways to the world around them. As the name suggests, our new expanded ServiceSpace platform allows people to stay connected with others interested in service, participate in service opportunities through any of our dozen projects, organize their own local service event using our tools, and stay connected to inspirational content. Above all, we believe in the inherent generosity of others and aim to ignite that spirit of service. Through our small, collective acts, we hope to transform ourselves and the world.
We hold these three principles steadfast within our organization:
Stay fully volunteer-run.
ServiceSpace was founded by volunteers and is run by volunteers. There is no paid staff, no office, and no central facilities. All ServiceSpace programs are conceived, designed, implemented, and administered by people who selflessly give their time so that others can benefit from those services.
Based on twelve years of our experience with a volunteer-run infrastructure, we’ve developed a streamlined process that structures projects in a distributed and decentralized manner. This allows more volunteers to give small chunks of time and still deliver high quality services to the end-receiver.
Being volunteer-run also allows us to organically self-organize. Instead of hierarchies and prefabricated business plans, our volunteer infrastructure is dynamic, low-cost and open to radical change. Everything is based on relationships and presence, and that creates a powerful context to BE the change.
We continue to be amazed at what inspired and dedicated individuals can do. Margaret Mead eloquently said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever does.” We could not agree more.
Serve with whatever we have.
We have chosen a slightly different path than most organizations, and choose not to focus on fundraising, grants, or other sources of revenue – for example, none of our websites contain any advertisement. All services are distributed are gifted without any fees. Thus, we serve with whatever support and resources that come in organically when people are truly moved to give.
ServiceSpace projects are built within a gift-economy system, an economic system in which goods and services are given freely, rather than traded. In a traditional market economy, one’s wealth is increased by saving. In a gift economy, giving leads to increase: an increase in connections and relationship strength.
Our services are given freely, without asking for anything in return. Instead of scarcity and fear for an uncertain future, our second principle roots us in abundance and trust. We have realized that over time, if you serve with pure intentions, people’s cups of gratitude overflow. They don’t give to fulfill a need, they give as an expression of their own solidarity and joy. These genuine gifts, no matter how small or large, are what sustains us.
Focus on the small.
Our attempt is to do “small acts with great love”. As our tagline says, “Change Yourself, Change the World.” If we started out by having a goal to change the world, we might have been a little disappointed in our abilities; when we start with ourselves, we notice that the ripples around us continue to get bigger and bigger and as more people try to do small acts, we have every potential to change the world.
Just as every tiny bit of a hologram contains information of the whole, we feel that paying attention to the process, to the present moment, gives us plenty of information to become instruments of a larger, systemic change.
This is how ServiceSpace makes things happen. But essentially the engine that drives the organization is inspiration, pure and simple. We learn from each other, spur each other, help each other, and frequently amaze each other. Sure, we are stirred by the words and lives of great men and women like Gandhi and Martin Luther King and Mother Theresa; but the examples set by our ServiceSpace colleagues–everyday heroes–are the real sustaining forces behind our projects.
My Queer Valentine Reception
Hosted by Torpedo Factory Art Center and Target Gallery
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Friday, February 14, 2020 at 7 PM – 10 PM
Next Week18–32°F Sunny
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105 N. Union St, Alexandria, Virginia 22314
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Art in Person and in Progress. Located in Old Town Alexandria, the Torpedo Factory Art Center is home to 165 working artists, seven galleries, The Art League, and the Alexandria Archaeology Museum. Free admission.
My Queer Valentine Shows the Richness of LGBTQ Life
The warmth of recognition is strong inside the exhibition.
“Acrylic” by Aurele Gould, 2017
I took my girlfriend to see My Queer Valentine on a Monday morning; it was a date, I told her. We took the Metro down to King Street and walked to the Alexandria waterfront. Once we got there, we strolled into The Torpedo Factory Art Center’s Target Gallery, hands interlocked.
For My Queer Valentine, the contemporary gallery’s spring show, the small space is filled with large-scale photographic prints, paintings on both large and small canvases, and sculpture. Visually, the pieces cover a broad range of styles, including a digitally influenced take on Abstract Expressionism, geometric interpretations of fire, Basquiat-esque mark-making and writing over photographs, sculpture with few references to recognizable forms, canvases made three-dimensional by the attachment of glittery found objects, and small silkscreen prints. Thematically, they may at first seem to not cohere, but that’s only because My Queer Valentine’s juried works cover a diverse and rich swath of queer life.
As for taking my girlfriend, I had another motive that I didn’t say aloud, though she may have picked up on it. I wanted to enter that exhibition as a visibly gay person, and I wanted to see how that affected my experience of the art. It was the right choice. My Queer Valentine does more than curate work that examines what it means to be LGBTQ in the 21st century: It creates a queer space warm with the joy of recognition.
Some works speak directly to that joy, like artist Cat Gunn’s abstract canvases. Their dramatic patterns represent the harmony of being in a relationship where their partner sees them as their authentic, nonbinary self, they write in the wall text. There are glittering squares and wobbling lines moving back and forth across the plane, but things seem to be coming together the longer you look—parts that once made no sense have an internal logic that reveals itself with sustained attention and open mindedness. Recognition can be dangerous, and the closet offers safety, but it also means hiding behind a mask. The relief of dropping the charade and being seen is transcendent.
My Queer Valentine isn’t camp, not as a whole, but it’s full of artworks made by people who understand the humor and the wondrous pompousness of queer glamor. (That glamor and its high drama are knowingly self-important because there are still so many people who wish we didn’t have it.) The first pieces the viewer encounters play with the feminine trappings of artificial jewelry, glitter, plastic, and resin, all in bright, loud colors; one piece dripping with sequins invites viewers to “lick me until ice cream.” That kind of playful sexuality thrives in many of the works, even the more subdued ones. A beige canvas on the opposing wall asks the onlooker to “come (cum on my) back.” The half-joking, half-serious attitude toward sex is one of My Queer Valentine’s greatest strengths, highlighting the laughter and joy inherent in queer life and queer sex.
Linda Hesh’s “Kissing Booth” is another joyful artwork. It’s not a stunning feat of technique and construction; it’s just a wood and steel booth, like one you might see at a county fair in the ’50s. It advertises itself as, unsurprisingly, “KISSING BOOTH.” It’s not anchored to a wall. Instead, it stands out from a corner and beckons viewers to come in, where they might notice that its gingham pattern is made up of pictures of kissing same-sex couples. I’ll admit my biases here: I’ve always had a love for participatory art. But the booth’s standing invitation to come inside, to take a picture kissing underneath it, and to share that picture with the world is a brave act, even in 2020 in Alexandria—brave for the artist and the piece inviting those kisses, brave for the people who choose to do so. Even though queer desire is hypervisible in contemporary life, it’s not always recognized as a loving, human affect. By asking people to kiss, Hesh affirms the romance of the gesture and the genuine safety of the space around it.
The most striking pieces were by D.C.-based photographer Matt Storm, a transgender man. His work is challenging, cheeky, and hard to look away from. The two images on display come from his Act of Looking series, where he returns to the same studio in Provincetown, Massachusetts, the famous gay vacation spot, to photograph his body “to create an expanded lexicon of ways to see a body, inclusive of ways to see my body,” he writes in his artist’s statement. In the first image, we see him standing naked, in a pose that looks relaxed but requires him to hold himself in place with his own strength. His muscles are tense but not flexed. His face isn’t overly expressive, but there’s a spark of playfulness in his eyes and a hint of a smile on his mouth. And his arm drapes behind his back, coming to rest between his legs, where he holds his fingers playfully—an obvious commentary on how, as he says, “my body is incongruous with how we are taught to see bodies.” In another, he clasps his hands in front of his crotch, fingers crossed. We can’t see his face, but we can feel the humor. The piece is titled “Crossing my Fingers, Getting Away with Something.”
But a different series of works stopped me in my tracks. Aurele Gould’s photographs pulled my gaze from the moment I entered the gallery. When I saw her triptych of an athlete putting pre-wrap around another girl’s thigh, I felt a lump in my throat. “A moment of transference is constructed, a care and an intimacy among women,” she writes in the wall text. Immediately I thought of Barbara Kruger’s 1981 piece “Untitled (You Construct Intricate Rituals),” which famously says “You construct intricate rituals that allow you to touch the skin of other men” over an image of men roughhousing. But I thought of it less because of its artistic impact and more because, for years, queer kids on Tumblr have been using it as a memetic reference point for jokes about the forbidden, magnetic pull of another person’s skin. In the three images of the piece, we see hands grab the inner thigh, let go to wrap the tape around, and return to place both hands on the partner’s leg.
Likewise, I’d been primed to see Gould’s piece “Acrylic” before I walked in—it represents My Queer Valentine online—but I stopped myself from making a beeline to it. When I did make my way over and allowed myself to look, I noticed for the first time the two models’ sharp, long, matching acrylic nails gently cradling each other’s faces. That striking image is made more striking by those glittery nails. Gould knows this: “I like how thought processes can fold unto each other, like thinking about when stereotypes can be used and who they can be used by,” she wrote in the wall text. I felt a pang of recognition. I smiled. The two lovers in the photograph stared at me, nails shining, and I took my girlfriend’s manicured hand and stared back.
105 N. Union St., Alexandria. (703) 746-4587. torpedofactory.org.
Global Love Day
The Vision
We honor each May 1st as a symbolic day of unconditional love and call upon all people and all nations to gather together in the wisdom of peace and love.
Global Love Day is the universal recognition of our innate oneness through love. It is our vision to unite one and all in a celebration of love and compassion. Join people around the world in celebrating and expanding LOVE.
We are one humanity on this planet.
All life is interconnected and interdependent.
All share in the Universal bond of love.
Love begins with self acceptance and forgiveness.
With respect and compassion we embrace diversity.
Together we make a difference through love.
When we come from this limitless love we naturally and easily embrace ourselves and our fellow humanity. Opening our heart, we allow unconditional love to be our guide and compassion to be our gift to life.
We invite you to celebrate with us by consciously focusing on love and what it means to you throughout this day. We hope that by practicing love in all areas of your life, you will find it easy to love unconditionally all year long. Our main themes explain it best…”Love Begins With Me” and ‘Celebrating Our Humanity.”
Be a part of it. Spread the word. Share your love.
Think: Global Love Day;
Feel: Love Begins With Me;
Remember: May 1st
We Celebrate our Humanity
As we continue to connect with people and organizations around the world, we are amazed at how much is being done in efforts to positively assist humanity. There are so many wonderful people and associations that are actively working on behalf of a community, nation and even in global proportions.
As we often remind ourselves, what is presented by mainstream information sources is frequently a narrow and negative perspective of what is happening upon this planet right now. To the contrary, we see and know that good and right is occurring everywhere. Look for love and you will see it all around you.
This simple reminder changes the very nature of our experience. We are what we place our attention upon. When we allow love to be our focus of life, we expand this in our everyday activities. It is as simple as changing each perspective and allowing the negative and limiting views to be released and replaced by a higher, more loving understanding.
We appreciate and are grateful for the courage each of you express. In a world that has historically revered the negative and fear-based aspects, it takes strength to be and share love. It is time for love to become our common vision.
Please join us. Be a part of this global day by choosing love, compassion, peace, and unity. Share this information with your friends, relatives and coworkers. Love locally and spread it globally.
Participate
Our first Global Love Day was presented on May 1, 2004. A variety of celebrations and events were held by individuals and groups around the world that initial year and the day was recognized with over a dozen proclamations from prominent Governors, Mayors and Councils. Since then we have continuously expanded each year to include many more communities and nations and now have over 580 proclamations honoring the day with thousands participating individually and at events. We are into our second decade of sharing love and celebrating our humanity – will you join us?
We have a special section dedicated to Global Love Day here on our site filled with ideas of how you can get involved and host your own local event on May 1st. Follow the dropdown tab above and find some suggestions of how you can participate and also find examples of what other creative events have been held before. You can find our Global Love Day social site pages too.
Our annual Art, Essay and Poetry Invitational is held in conjunction with Global Love Day each year and encourages anyone young at heart to submit their art, essay or poetry based on the tenents and vision and theme of the day. See our Guidelines for more information on this special related program.
The Global Love Day Flyers have been translated in over 37 languages so far and all are available to download and print right from your desktop.
The Initial Vision
(An open letter from Founder Harold Becker in 2004)
The Love Foundation is delighted to announce the first annual GLOBAL LOVE DAY on May 1, 2004 with this year’s theme of Love Begins With Me. Join people from around the world as we acknowledge, celebrate and share the love we have within. This is a special day of recalling that love is the link that binds us all. It is also the awesome power that heals and transforms everything it contacts.
Each of us is a potent force of love when we allow this energy to express itself. There is nothing we have to ultimately do, rather we need only allow ourselves to feel and be love. It is that simple. Global Love Day is merely our way of saying let’s remember love is ours to be and to share every moment of our lives.
We understand this day is a symbol of what we can do every day of the year. Our intent is to join together in a conscious recognition that love is always present. For so many, love is often hidden under layers of hurt, trauma, drama, pain and suffering. Emotional memories, unspoken doubt, fear, resentment and a multitude of old beliefs often keep us from realizing these thoughts and feelings have no real power over us. We give them power by living in the past and being afraid of the future. We ignore the love that is present every moment while embracing limitation. It is time to change that. It is time to release ourselves from our own self created bondage.
You and I have the opportunity to make a difference. Together we can embrace our unlimited self, the part of us that knows love and expresses it naturally and simply. It is when we accept ourselves just for who we are that we transform the moment into peace, security, joy and love. This process begins with releasing our limiting beliefs, past mistakes, lack of self worth, pride and ego through the conscious act of forgiveness. It is up to us as individuals to undertake this journey. We begin the transformation when we turn within and accept our self. We change the world when we change our perspective.
As we come to know who we are and why we act and react the way we do, we start to see ourselves in the faces of humanity. The reflection of hurt is our hurt, their pain is our pain, another’s anger is our anger. It is also seen in the face of nature. Her destruction is our destruction. These seemingly random expressions are our past thoughts seeking manifestation. It is our constant reminder that love is the answer. We build a new reality in this current moment when we let go. When we choose love over fear, kindness over hate, integration over separation, and peace over war, we bring a new reflection to humanity… our loving selves.
So, please accept our invitation to love. Join us hand-in-hand as we share our love on this planet once again.
Love, light, and peace,
Harold W. Becker
Founder/President
Founder’s Address 2019
Welcome Dear Friends to Global Love Day 2019,
We join our hearts this day in celebration of life itself. Coming together around the globe, we unify our highest intention and collective potential, igniting the creative spark that lights our shared journey forward on this precious planet we call home. Realizing our magnificence as loving beings, each of us holds the key to our brightest futures. Compassion, kindness, joy and peace are our natural expressions when we recognize that love begins with me.
As one humanity on this planet, we have a common heritage and universal destiny. With each unfolding moment, we are comprehending the grandness of our personal and combined opportunities to evoke our heart-felt wisdom. It is a simple knowing that all life is interconnected and interdependent and our gift to the world is appreciating one another with grace and dignity.
We all share in the Universal bond of love and, from this essential understanding, we build fresh, new realities that infuse the very best of who we are. In this way, we consciously manifest for the greatest benefit of all. We begin with self-acceptance and forgiveness as the cornerstone to a foundation built solidly on love. This ensures we inspire, nurture, cultivate and express our dreams of a better world for our children and the earth herself.
There are infinite possibilities before us to explore as we walk in harmony with everyone and everything around us. It is with respect and compassion that we embrace diversity. We learn and grow through our countless interactions and expand far beyond the sum of our parts when we allow ourselves to evolve beyond our present perspectives. The majesty of life reveals itself within and about us when we open our hearts. Together we truly do make a difference through love.
With happiness, delight and love, I welcome you to our sixteenth Global Love Day celebration.
Love, light and peace,
Harold W. Becker
Founder and President
The Love Foundation
A welcome letter from the host…
Greetings friends…
We’ve all got to follow best practices for staying safe and taking care of each other during the pandemic. This online gathering is about best practices for your inner life.
How can you rest in your own presence and non-reactivity? How can you open in compassion and let your heart’s intelligence guide your actions? How can you stay open to your experience – not grabbing onto your emotion but not bypassing it either? How can your struggles deepen your practice and bring forward new capacities?
This Being & Doing gathering will give you a chance to hear from some extraordinary, open-hearted, generous mentors. The teachers will all be live – guiding practices, taking questions and joining with you in a supportive field of collective presence. Use this opportunity to help you stay open and free inside of yourself, to nourish your resilience, and to connect with a powerful community of like-minded souls.
Jeff Charno, Being & Doing Host
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You can use this Awakening in the Midst video collection right away.
From Loch Kelly, Craig Hamilton, Diana Winston, Caverly Morgan
These aren’t ordinary guided meditations. These four short programs lead you directly into natural awakened awareness – a state of flow and effortless presence. Clarifying this in yourself is life changing and it’s easier than you think.
PRACTICING IN THE MIDST is a free two-day LIVE online gathering bringing together ten extraordinary and generous teachers with a community of thousands of people. Challenging times can be a powerful catalyst for personal and collective evolution. Come join us in practice.
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Awakening
You will learn to rest in your already awakened nature. A subtle shift opens you to freedom from the endless agitation of your mind. Touch into your deep heart and let it energize your actions.
Transformation
Inquiry, mindfulness, and radical acceptance can each open doorways into unseen dimensions of your soul. Release what isn’t serving you and let your true nature lead the day.
Connection
Feeling like separate beings is a mistaken perception. Our interdependence and connection, usually buried in the background, has become more palpable than ever. We’re in these lives
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Teaching Schedule for the Live Gathering
Talks, Practices and Q&A
MONDAY – May 11th, 2020:
MAY 11 @ 12:00 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Effortless Mindfulness Teacher, Psychotherapist, and Author
“The important thing is to find the Self that has the capacity to bear what seemed to be unbearable, the self that can be present with all of our parts unconditionally.”
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MAY 11 @ 1:30 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Meditation Teacher, Nonprofit Leader, and Visionary
“If you meditate to be a better person, you’ll always be busy trying to be a better person. If you meditate because you are in love with resting in your own luminous infinite being, you’ll always be in love.”
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MAY 11 @ 3:00 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Contemporary Meditation Teacher, Bestselling Author
“Fall in love with where you are. Turn towards this – a sacred moment, unrepeatable. Trust the ebb and flow of things. Say yes to uncertainty and the unresolvedness of your life.”
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MAY 11 @ 4:30 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Founder of the Diamond Approach To Self-Realization
“We are not separate. Our sense of separateness is superficial and exists only in the physical dimension. Every other human being is just as precious as we are, and worthy of as much respect and love and consideration.”
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MAY 11 @ 6:00 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Spiritual Teacher, Founder of Integral Enlightenment
“True meditation is about being fully present with everything that is – including discomfort and challenges. It is not an escape from life.”
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TUESDAY – May 12th, 2020:
MAY 12 @ 12:00 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Founder of Gateway, Spiritual Facilitator
“Do you know how to be quiet and let go, when life challenges you and brings you to the edge?”
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MAY 12 @ 1:30 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Wellbeing Research Professor, Director of Transformative Technology Lab
“The world’s largest scientific research project into fundamental well-being, sometimes called enlightenment, reveals the methods which actually work.”
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MAY 12 @ 3:00 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Author, activist, authorized Lama (Buddhist Teacher) and founder of Bhumisparsha Sangha
“Let your love be the container for anger and despair. Love will not dissolve them, but will offer enough space to not get lost in them.”
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MAY 12 @ 4:30 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA, Author
“Saying yes means surrendering to your experience, whatever it is. It means feeling your body when you’re in the midst of a strong reaction or emotion… and noticing that thoughts and feelings come and go.”
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MAY 12 @ 6:00 PM (ATWATER, UNITED STATES)
Founder of Evolutionary Collective, Bestselling Author
“Right now, it feels more important than ever to come together and actively find our oneness, our goodness and our capacity to live a higher order of love as a social reality.”
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Practicing in the Midst
Being & Doing is committed to creating opportunities for people to come together to practice, to celebrate community, and to recognize unending mystery and beauty (even when the sky appears to be falling).
Recordings of the live sessions will be replayed for 24-hours on Wednesday, May 13th, in every timezone.
You can also purchase the recordings for a small cost.
Being & Doing Sponsors
The Ribbon 2020 – Tangible Hope for No Nuclear War
The Ribbon was founded by Justine Merritt who had visited Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in 1982. She was greatly affected by the tragedy caused by the Atomic Bomb. After arriving home, it came to her to create a Ribbon, and decided to have a Ribbon event on the 40th memorial anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
It was in the middle of the Cold War between The United States and The Soviet Union, and using nuclear weapons could happen again at a moments notice.
On August 4, 1985, in Washington, D.C., fifteen miles of Ribbons encircled the Pentagon and other important monuments: With the message of “What I cannot bear to think of as lost forever in a nuclear war”. The Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima was also encircled.
The Ribbon International is now a Non Governmental Organization in Association with the United Nations. Since 1985, many Ribbons have been created around the world. People carry Ribbons and pray for Peace at many occasions such as; community memorial gatherings and marches related to nuclear, peace and environmental issues. Ribbons have been exhibited in various places as well.
Nowadays the world is closer to the tragedy of nuclear war or a nuclear accident more than ever before.
On August 1st 2020, the 75th Anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, The Ribbon International is planning to have a Ribbon event in New York City and in other cities around the world. Please join us, and pray for a world without nuclear weapons and never another nuclear tragedy. (If you cannot join, please pray with us wherever you are.)
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How to make Ribbon
(Please also see our website: www.theribboninternational.org)
- Cut a panel of sturdy cloth, double thickness, of any color.
- Finished size: one meter by a half meter (or one yard by a half yard)
- Sew 20cm (9 inch) pieces of ribbon to each corner so the panels may be easily tied together.
- On this panel, sew, paint, write, embroider, weave, knit, tie-dye or use any other kind of ornaments to express what you most love about the world and want to protect from what is endangered on this earth.
- If you wish, write your name and/or any message on the back of the panel.
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BECOME A LOCAL CONTACT FOR THE RIBBON IN YOUR COMMUNITY – organizations, schools, places of worship, individuals, artists, teachers and many others have adopted the Ribbon project for such celebrated days as Earth Day, World Peace Week and United Nations/Global Citizenship Day to promote local awareness and action. Create Ribbons to display at local events, advertise in newspapers, organization newsletters, on radio and TV.
| THE NEW RIBBON: TANGIBLE HOPE | ||
| THE UNITED NATIONS HAS DESIGNATED SEPTEMBER 21 | THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE Honor this day of global cease fire |
CREATE RIBBON EXHIBITS FOR PEACE |
To help support the Ribbon project and keep it growing around the world please send tax exempt donations made out to – Peace Action Education Fund, 40 Witherspoon St., Princeton, NJ 08542, USA and direct it for The Ribbon International.
We invite you to join the Ribbon project, there is no fee. Just create and display a Ribbon, you have then symbolically joined with others world wide in creating and thinking in terms of care and protection of the earth and its inhabitants.
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Pieces to Peace,
There will be no check-in table in Arlington in August
with an aging, greying teacher with a red Bic pen
waiting to grade assignments for more than ten miles of Ribbon.
All the pieces belong there:
all the symbols of a nation’s yearning for peace.
Who would want to judge the pieces?
Choose one as better than another?
Work of Art?
Work of heart?
Who would want to judge the pieces?
Lay aside a child’s rain-touched, felt tipped rainbow
for an artist’s gessoed work?
Who would want to say the eighth-grader’s acrylic basketball court
held more promise that the quilter’s careful stitches
holding her aching heart together after the evening’s late news?
Each one makes The Ribbon:
the pizza, poison ivy, pomegranate seeds
the ladybugs, mid-Hudson bridge,
poetry,
and creed;
each segment makes The Ribbon.
It is in the addition we find the sum:
for it is one yard
plus one yard
plus each yard of cloth
that we honor the diversity,
that we celebrate the unity.
Each piece makes The Ribbon;
each piece brings the piece.
Amen
JOURNEY. Justine Merritt
CA: Hope Publishing House
1993. (p.111) -Arlington, VA 1985
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Some Events in the Life of the Ribbon
1982: Justine Merritt is inspired to tie a Ribbon around the Pentagon in Washington, DC, USA from the theme; “What I cannot bear to think of as lost forever in a nuclear war”, and writes about it to friends on her holiday card list.
1985: August 4th: Over ten miles of Ribbons encircle the Pentagon and other Washington, DC buildings. The Atom Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, Japan is also
–1986: In New Zealand, Ribbons connect US and USSR embassies. In South Africa, Black and White mothers unite using Ribbons to tell their government they don’t want their children killing each other. In Japan, Ribbons are used to protest the razing of Ikego Forest. 10,000 Ribbons link B’hai temple to the ocean in Austrailia and USSR World Leader Mikhail Gorbachev is presented a Ribbon by Justine Merritt.
1987: In Okinaw, Japan, Ribbons help surround the largest military base in the Pacific and are displayed in Zushi for the environment at Ikego Forest. In Holland, panels connect the US and USSR embassies. Tamel, Sinhalese and Christian segments are exhibited together in Sri Lanka.
1988-1989: In the Middle East, the Interns for Peace calendar shows Ribbons made by Arab and Jewish children.
1990: In London, Ribbons are exhibited in the Houses of Parliament. In Geneva, Ribbons are displayed in the Palais des Nations during the NTP Conference.
1991: In New York, Ribbons are exhibited at the United Nations during the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Conference. Included are panels created by Iraqi and American children. New York State Museum in Albany has an International Ribbon exhibit.
1992: Ribbons are displayed in Brazil and around the planet during the UN “Earth Summit.”
1993: Ribbons are displayed at the Human Rights Conference in Vienna, inspire an environmental Ribbon contest in Singapore and is cosponsor of the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago.
1994: The Canadian Ecumenical Council Calendar features Ribbon segments as part of UN related art. Gas City and Marion Indiana create and exhibit Ribbons in preparation for the UN 50th anniversary.
1995: Ribbon displays celebrate the UN 50th anniversary Year. With the help of divers, Ribbons are carried under water and connect Egypt, Israel and Jordon. Segments are contributed by Switzerland, Germany, Italy and China.
1996: International Mothers of Liberia use Ribbons to help protest the stealing of children for the army. Towns in the Ukraine create panels calling for a world without wars or violence. Ribbons are given to all the UN Missions. Mayors for Peace through Inter-city Solidarity learn of the Ribbon.
1997: Estonia uses Ribbons to celebrate peace. Ribbons are taken to Haiti to promote a culture of peace. In Magdeburg, Germany, the Mayor inspires the city’s population to create and display panels for Human Rights Day and other occasions. The Bonadssamlingen Museum in Stenstorp, Sweden exhibits Ribbons.
1998: Ribbons are displayed at the UNESCO Culture and Developement conference in Stockholm, Sweden. *1998 is the UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL YEAR of the OCEANS. Show on your Ribbon the beauty of our never ending oceans.
1999: Ribbon panels are displayed for Human Rights Day in Copenhagen, made in China, are exhibitied at the Hague Appeal for Peace (HAP99) in the Netherlands and created for the International Year of Older Persons.
2000 – 2006: Ribbons are given to all U.S. Congressmen for the UN Culture of Peace Year. Lake Havasu City, AZ, USA creates and display Ribbons for UN Day. Africans and Cubans receive Ribbons for peace. A Ribbon is given to Pope John Paul II in Rome in honor of the Decade for a COP and Non Violence for the Children of the World. 9/11 annually Ribbons are carried from the UN to the World Trade Center, NY with an Interfaith litany read.
2001 – 2010: The United Nations International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World. Show on your panel a “Culture of Peace.” Church Women United (CWU) initiates the Ribbon as part of their celebrated days of prayers for peace such as World Community Day.
Founder Justine Merritt and Michele Peppers present Ribbon panel to Pope John Paul II, in honor of the United Nations resolution for the Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non Violence for the Childrend for the World (2001-2010), October 17, 2001
